Hayley Wickenheiser: Lessons Learned About Motherhood

For Olympic champion and sports icon Hayley Wickenheiser, representing Canada in both the summer and winter Olympics hasn't been her highest honour. Nor is it the sports arena, in her hometown of Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, that was named after her. And, although, receiving the Order of Canada comes extremely close, her highest honour is being a mother to her 12-year-old son.

Being a mother comes with the responsibility of shaping and nurturing a future generation. This is a role that she is proud to share with 9.2 million Canadian women, who make both small and large sacrifices to raise confident, well-adjusted contributors to society. Indeed, mothers are worthy of public praise.

Walmart Canada agrees, and starting on May 10, 2012, Walmart Canada is celebrating Mother's Day by asking Canadians to nominate his or her mom for the Mom of the Year Awards. Hayley will be one of five Mom Ambassadors who will determine who will be the lucky eight finalists and the winners of a $10,000 award. Plus, the overall winner will receive an additional $100,000 to be donated to a charity or cause of her choice. We spoke with Hayley to discuss the life and financial lessons that she has learned and her personal experiences as a mother.

WalletPop: As you know hockey is not a cheap sport, how did your parents go about paying for it?

Hayley Wickenheiser: My parents were both teachers, and we weren't rich. So like most Canadian families, they were just trying to make it work. I always bought used equipment and I never had a brand new pair of skates until I was sixteen years old. I didn't have a brand new stick until I was thirteen years old. And fees weren't overly excessive as they are today. My mom and dad always made our [my brother and I] sports a priority and they always sacrificed their travel and their adventures for us so we could do what we wanted to do.

WP: Did you ever have a part-time job growing up?

HW: The only other job I've ever had was a paper route, but that lasted a short time. My job has been to play hockey. Since I was fifteen I have been a carded athlete making [at the time] $800 to $1500 a month.

WP: What lessons did you learn once you became a carded athlete? Was there a shift in your psyche in terms of how you approached playing the game?

HW: Yeah. You go from being a kid playing for the love of it to 'now this is your job and you are being paid to be trained to do it.' So there is a shift because it becomes a responsibility that you are not only living up to yourself, but to your teammates and the other people that you are representing. Certainly you develop a more professional approach, and I think that over the years, I have learned what it means to be a professional. I'm not so sure I really knew what that was at age fifteen, but I think I know what it is at age thirty-three. And, you're still growing and changing and trying to improve yourself as an athlete, even now.

WP: Growing up did your parents teach you about making and managing money?

HW: They did. We got an allowance and they stressed that we had a certain amount that we could spend and a certain amount that we had to save. At sixteen I was basically financially independent. I had moved out of the house and I was paying rent. They gave me a lot of tools along the way to manage money. I wasn't making a lot of it, but I was able to take care of myself. I'm proud of myself for being able to do that.

WP: You mentioned earlier that your parents gave you tools to manage money. What kind of tools did they give you?

HW: The importance of saving and investing young. I started saving when I was twelve and I set up my first RRSP when I was fifteen. They taught me about investing in real estate. And when it came to buying my first car they taught me not to buy the best car that I could afford, but to buy something that was a little more modest. They always lived within their means and have demonstrated that in their daily lives, and that has been a very valuable lesson for me.

WP: How did you spend your first paycheque?

HW: I bought a Dodge Colt for about $500, and it didn't have shocks in it. But it got me from A to B. It was like a Fred Flintstone car; the girls joked about it. I drove that thing into the ground. It was a great investment.

WP: How did you broach the topic of money with your son?

HW: I just set up a trust account for him that he can have access to and invest in once he turns eighteen. I also had my financial planner come and talk to him about investments and savings. My financial planner dumbed it down to kids' language so he could understand what it's all about. He's very interested. He likes to read the paper and talk about stocks and fixed income. He's very keen on learning about things like that. I don't know if he truly understands the value of money yet, but I'm trying to help him to understand. We're trying to give him and allowance and do things to keep him on the right track.

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Nominations for the Mom of the Year Awards close on July, 8, 2012, and finalists will be notified the following month by August 15. For more information, visit www.momoftheyear.ca.



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